Green Eyed Monster
by NewRain
Summary: It's Susan's sweet sixteen, and Lucy's feeling a bit jealous. A bit of Lucy/Peter sibling bonding. Oneshot


**A/N:** This takes place during Susan's 16th birthday. Peter is 17, Edmund 14, Lucy 11. This is my first story so please review and give me feedback! Thanks.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the characters. They are the property of CS Lewis.

Green. Not a light green like the new buds of spring but a dark green, closer to black.

Susan had picked it out for her to wear, saying how pretty she looked in it. It was itchy and too sparkly and Lucy had hated it, but Susan had said she would look pretty, and who better to give advice about beauty than Susan? And after all, Lucy thought, it _was_ Susan's sweet sixteen.

In her room, Lucy closed her eyes as she slipped the dress over her head in preparation for the party. She imagined herself beautiful, surrounded by a crowd, all clamoring for her attention.

She opened her eyes to look at her reflection. Just plain old Lucy staring back at her. She sighed. Somehow she had believed that wearing it would make her more like Susan, like beautiful Susan, the "pretty sister."

She slowly headed out of her room to the stairs. She passed the bathroom where she saw Susan and a group of teenage girls where gathered, slathering makeup on their faces.

Curious, she hid back behind the door. What were they talking about in there?

"Susan. You are so lucky! You don't even need any makeup at all. All the boys are going to just fall in love with you," gushed one of the girls, her voice tinged with a hint of envy.

Lucy's ears perked at the words; she could strongly sympathize with the girl who had spoken. At the thought, Lucy blushed. Was she really like one of them? One of Susan's friends? They were air headed girls who thought of nothing but boys, and Lucy had disliked them from the beginning. She shook her head furiously. No, she would never be like one of those girls.

"Su, does your brother Peter have a girlfriend?" another girl asked hesitantly.

"No." Susan's answer was met by excited squeals throughout the group of "he's so handsome!"

Lucy had heard enough. How terrible would it be if the vapid girls stole Peter just as they had stolen Susan? Earlier, Susan had barely had enough time to look at Lucy's gift, a little lion figurine, and mutter a quick "thanks, but it's a bit childish, don't you think?" before running off to join her friends.

She climbed down the stairs, one by one, to where the party would be held and sat on a couch, waiting in her too itchy, too sparkly dress.

The doorbell rang, and Susan came down the stairs quickly, followed by the rest of the giggling girls.

As the girls ran past Lucy to open the door, a few girls "awwed" at Lucy, in overly sweet fake voices. It was worse than being ignored, Lucy decided.

Peter and Edmund, asked by Susan to "please dress nicely" came down in suits just as the door was opened, and more girls and several boys, Susan's many admirers, walked in.

As they looked at the crowd of boys, Edmund frowned, and Peter clenched his jaw. Barely having time to react, Peter's face became one of despair as the giggling swarm of girls surrounded him. Ed's face showed happy shock when quite a few girls came up and asked him to dance.

Lucy watched with dismay. If only she were beautiful like Susan, then she wouldn't be feeling miserable in an itchy dress, alone on the couch. She imagined herself at her own 16th birthday, just as beautiful as Susan, surrounded by attention. Lucy knew it was just her imagination. She would never be as beautiful as Susan. She sniffled as a tear trickled down her cheek.

Lucy soon felt a hand on her shoulder. She quickly wiped her face. She was eleven after all, and wouldn't want to be seen as a baby. She turned her head, and instantly her face burst into a smile.

"Peter!" she had thought he would never escape from those girls.

He grinned at her, then walked in front of her, bowed, and asked, "May I have a dance with the most beautiful girl at the party?"

Lucy gasped. How had Peter known exactly what to say to make her feel better? But after all, Lucy reasoned, Peter was the magnificent High King; he had always protected her from monsters, which, she found out, evidently included the green eyed kind. She hugged him tightly before following him to the dance floor.

As he twirled her around, the group of girls giggled more as they watched.

"Aww, he's such a sweet brother. I'm dancing with him next," one girl piped up. This was met with bickering from the other girls, a groan from Peter, and a laugh from Lucy.

As Peter spun her one last time, Lucy caught a glimpse of Edmund in the midst of a group of girls, thoroughly enjoying the new attention from girls he wasn't used to getting. She smiled. It seemed as though Edmund, always in the shadow of a certain brother who was "sooo handsome," was beating his own green eyed monster as well.

Feeling awfully uncomfortable in her dress, Lucy thanked Peter with a hug, and then began climbing the stairs. She laughed as she saw the girls argue over who would dance with Peter next, pushing and stepping over one another.

In her room once again, Lucy rid herself of the hated dress, replacing it with her favorite faded light green dress, worn with age. She glanced at Susan's bed where the lion lay discarded, on its side.

"Oh, you poor thing!" Lucy exclaimed, picking the lion up and dusting it off before setting it down on Susan's desk.

She once again returned to the party to find everyone gathering for cake. She squeezed through the crowd, and sat down next to Peter. He smiled when he saw her in her favorite dress. That was more like his Lu. He placed his arm around her.

Susan, upon seeing Lucy, raised her eyebrows and shook her head. The child didn't know how to properly dress for a party.

Susan fetched a knife and cut the cake. Susan had insisted on bypassing the candles because blowing out candles was a silly thing done only by children.

Lucy watched as Susan, already slender, took only a tiny bite from her piece before setting it down. Susan was watching her figure. Some other girls, upon seeing this, reluctantly put down their slices as well. If they were to be beautiful like Susan, they thought they must act like her too.

Lucy watched as Susan whispered in one of her admirer's ears and secretly slipped out of the room with him, away from the party. Lucy knew that Susan barely knew the boy, had barely talked to him at all.

Like the dress discarded in her room, the green eyed monster was dead. Lucy turned back to her slice of cake and took a big bite. In her old, worn dress, with Peter's arm around her, and with her face covered in frosting, Lucy had never felt more beautiful.


End file.
